2017 Nissan LEAF

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Reviews

Driving Impression

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Entirely calm and quiet, the Leaf can accelerate more quickly than an economy car with an engine. There’s less drama, but also less excitement. At least less visceral excitement. Being rapidly whooshed can be exciting too.

Those healthy 187 pound-feet of torque is there when you want it, although the Leaf isn’t terribly quick between 40 and 70 mph, the two-lane passing speeds.

At speeds above about 50 mph, the Leaf feels breathless, and the steering gets heavier, like it’s pushing into headwind, which is exactly what’s happening with wind drag, so the range drops like a stone.

The accelerator pedal demands a lot of pressure to get all the way down. It’s a deliberate design, to make sure you’re committed to using up your precious energy and range, not unlike your computer asking you, Are you sure?

The Eco mode cuts power by 10 percent to increase the range, but it sure feels like a lot more than 10 percent to us. It’s a good (and safer) thing that when you floor it, it snaps out of Eco and gives what you ask, all the juice it’s got.

One thing that will be a joy to city drivers, which is most of them because an electric car is really a city car, is the tiny turning circle of 17 feet. Easy to make a U-turn to snag that parking space on the opposite side of the street, like they do all the time in San Francisco.

The regenerative braking is tuned to feel like an automatic transmission. There’s a B mode, which increases the regeneration to feel like engine braking. B mode theoretically brings you more range, because it keeps the battery charge higher and longer; but it requires more concentration from the driver, so allow for that aggressive braking.

The low-mounted battery pack lowers the center of gravity, so the balance is good, and there’s no body roll during cornering, but neither is there much feedback or feel in the steering. Hard cornering isn’t what the Leaf is all about anyhow, nor is that something Leaf owners are likely to engage in, on their way home from the library. However, it is a tall car on small wheels, so it’s sensitive to side winds.

Overall, the Leaf’s handling and roadholding are adequate, but hardly engaging; driven aggressively, it’s disappointing, with numb steering and little feedback. The driver feels removed. But on the upside, the turning circle is a shockingly small 17 feet.

Walk Around

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With some electric cars, you can’t tell. The Leaf isn’t like that. It announces itself with a weird aero jellybean shape. No grille, rather a sloping nose with a hatch over charging port. Frog-like headlamps rise and creep to the windshield pillars. The tail is striped by vertical LED taillamps.

Interior Overview

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The cabin doesn’t try to match the aero style, but that doesn’t mean there’s not some space-agey features mingling with some cheap controls. The drive selector looks like a mushroom, and the digital displays are dazzling. The Leaf starts with a button and goes into gear with a mouse. The parking brake still uses a pedal, somehow stuck in the last century.

The instrument panel uses two rows bunched behind the steering wheel, plus a screen in the center of the dash that displays range, maps, energy use, nearby recharging points, and more. On the entry-level S it’s five inches, and on other models it’s seven inches.

Due to federal definitions, the Leaf squeezes into that official midsize interior/compact exterior class. It will seat four comfortably and five without much more effort. That’s only possible thanks to the careful mounting of the battery pack deep under the rear seat.

Since an electric car has no engine to drown out the road noise, a well-isolated cabin is critical. A special detail in the Leaf is its exclusive silent windshield wipers; engineers tried using the wipers borrowed from a luxury Infiniti, but they were too loud. We have to ask: does that mean the new Infiniti will feature Leaf wipers?

Summary

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The Nissan Leaf is a contender in the all-electric field. However, a redesigned model is expected for 2018.

Sam Moses contributed to this report.

Model Lineup

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The 2017 Nissan Leaf comes in S ($30,680), SL ($34,200), and SV ($36,790) models. (Prices are MSRP and do not include destination charge.)